Gray
by meggz0rz
Summary: Modern AU Oneshot. Sesshomaru reads some goofy texts from his wife, and waits for his young son to get home from daycare. A mediocre spaghetti dinner is the least of his problems, especially compared with the sound of that metallic clink, that cold noise that makes Sesshomaru relive the worst day of his life every time he hears it... SessKagu Weekend 2019 Submission.


**_Hi! So this was originally posted on Tumblr several months ago as part of SessKagu Weekend 2019, and because it's me I chose the tragic prompt mwahahaha. I'm finally uploading it on all my fic accounts so the next time I want to find it I don't have to search through a million of my shitposts lol_**

**_Y'ALL BE PREPARED - THIS ONE IS A SAD ONE. I DIDN'T PUT THE CATEGORY AS TRAGEDY BY ACCIDENT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED._**

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**GRAY**

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Sesshomaru opened the front door, and out of habit immediately tossed his car keys onto the side table and shrugged out of his smart suit jacket as he kicked off his shoes. Cradling the discarded outer layer over the crook of his arm, he wandered through the dark, quiet house and, once in reach, tossed the jacket expertly over the back of a chair.

There were toys all over the floor, in random arrays that he knew would be fantastical and imaginatory if he ever had the chance to inquire about them. It was a careful navigation, a careful journey that focused on not disturbing a single thing, as he made his way to the kitchen table, pulled out a chair, and took a seat.

He pulled his phone from his pants pocket, selected the messages, and read.

"_I'm on my way to pick up the kiddo. And yes, of course I flooded the washing machine again. I never said I was the housewife type, did I? Don't choke yourself trying to laugh and say you told me so. Be home soon. Start dinner, will you?"_

_You're right,_ he thought, allowing himself a rare and small smile. _I didn't marry a housewife. But I didn't want to, did I?_

He put a pot of water on the stove to boil, readied the spaghetti. He had to physically break the dry pasta in half - _to make it easier for the little one_, Kagura had said smilingly.

When the spaghetti was in the water and he had a few minutes to spare, he sat back down and began going through his neverending emails.

The door opened a few minutes later, and Kazeki bounded through the door, almost tripping over himself in an excited fervor.

"Daddy! Hi, Daddy!"

Sesshomaru grunted as his son nearly tackled him out of the chair in greeting, and ruffled his son's hair in response, a fond smile crossing his features.

Kazeki immediately seemed to notice the toys he'd failed to put away properly the night before, and so the four-year-old set to business, settling himself on the living room floor and picking up his childish narrative with the action figures as if he'd never even paused.

"I swear," a female voice said, and Sesshomaru felt his ears perk up, his gut clench, as a flash of black hair appeared around the hallway corner, "He's got more energy than a nuclear reactor!"

The black hair was his sister-in-law's, and Sesshomaru settled backward into his chair more comfortably, forcing his attention back toward his phone as Kagome walked into the room. "I'm sure you know that, though," she said with a winning smile, her hand coming to rest on her own heavily pregnant belly.

"Of _course_ he knows that," he heard his brother's voice first, and then watched him appear around the corner after his wife, "I'm sure trying to put the little whelp to bed is an absolute nightmare." Inuyasha looked grumpy, and Sesshomaru could guess why - Kazeki was, of late, obsessed with old Barney songs and requested them over and over when they were in the car. Poor Inuyasha, yet to even experience the exhaustion a child would bring, had been caught completely off-handed.

"But he's doing so well in school, the teachers said!" Kagome quickly explained, "They said he knows his letters and his numbers completely, faster than anyone else in the class!"

_Of course he does, _Sesshomaru thought cagily, _He's _our _son, isn't he?_

"Sesshomaru," Kagome said, as Inuyasha came to rest behind her and, almost as if out of instinct and not thought, placed a protective hand over her swollen belly, "How's the laundry?"

"It's fine," Sesshomaru said shortly.

"Okay, and dinner?"

"Already started."

Kagome's loving smile was just too irritating, and Sesshomaru turned physically away, keeping his face to his phone, his mind on his work emails.

"Well, okay," she said, seemingly relenting as she took Inuyasha's hand and linked her fingers with his, "We'll leave you to it."

She kissed and hugged her nephew goodbye, and Inuyasha did the same, picking Kazeki up and giving him a good few spins around and around, sending the child into a fit of giggles.

As Inuyasha set him down, there was the telltale metallic _clink_ on the floor.

"See ya tomorrow, kid," Inuyasha said, throwing an arm around Kagome's shoulders and leading her towards the front door.

Kagome ducked around the corner once, saying "Bye, Sesshomaru!"

Sesshomaru grunted in reply, but said nothing further.

"Daddy!" Kazeki maneuvered around from his position on the floor, using his hands to prop himself up. "Are you hungry?"

_Are you hungry. Never 'I'm hungry.' Just, 'are _you _hungry'. This child gets more and more like his mother every day._

"I've got spaghetti and red sauce on its way," Sesshomaru said quietly, "Just a few more minutes."

Kazeki was satisfied with this and returned to his narrative with the toys.

Sesshomaru placed his chin in his hand and just watched him play.

He was growing stronger every day.

Stronger than the doctors had predicted.

The only clue to what had happened was that sound.

_Clink._

_Clink._

The sound of metal colliding with the hardwood floors.

The sauce was ready to be heated, and so Sesshomaru did whatever needed to be done, and in a few minutes, dinner was ready. A poor dinner. A meager dinner. But a dinner nonetheless.

"It itches, Daddy. Take it off?"

"Of course," Sesshomaru said, and so he undid the straps and lifted Kazeki into his chair at dinnertime and watched the boy greet the noodles with a ferocity unmatched.

Sesshomaru tried his best to eat. He really did.

But he couldn't manage more than a few bites.

_I really _am _a terrible cook,_ he thought with a minute smile, _you were right._

Kazeki, on the other hand, ate like his life depended on it, so focused on his meal that Sesshomaru was certain he hadn't noticed his father's somber fixation on the silver metal object left on the living room floor.

No, not silver.

Gray.

The small metallic prosthetic that was meant to attach to the young boy's thigh, and complete his leg below the knee.

"_Be home soon."_

_Liar._

She'd died protecting their son. That much he knew.

She'd seen the collision coming, and she'd actually unbuckled herself and thrown her own body over his booster seat.

Kazeki didn't remember the accident, or so a half dozen or so child therapists had assured Sesshomaru.

He was a bright, beautiful, kind and sweet child, with one memento of the horror he'd undergone.

That gray prosthetic. That lie to replace his missing limb. Lost in that horrific car crash.

The other driver had been distracted. Not paying attention. Drove straight through a stop sign. Right into the backseat.

_Kagura, if you hadn't protected him, he would have died._

And Sesshomaru knew that wherever she was, wherever people went after they died, she had known that.

But where had that left _him?_

Alone in a world without her. To raise their son and watch him look more like her every single day. To see a quirk in Kazeki's smile and know that it was Kagura shining through.

He looked at the text message again. Saw its date.

_Sent 7/8/2018. Has it been that long since - _

"Daddy?"

Sesshomaru jolted out of his deep melancholy thoughts, and looked to his right, where his son sat in his kitchen booster seat, with that black hair that was all hers and those golden eyes that were all his, smiling with that openness that only a child could give.

"Cheese?" Kazeki asked.

Fighting back a snort of laughter and a tearful lump in his throat all at once, Sesshomaru smiled and nodded and got up to retrieve the parmesan from the refrigerator.

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**_I warned y'all right? *sobs*_**

**_This might have been the cruelest twist I've ever written but of course I'm quite proud of it because I'm weird like that._**

**_Please review if you can! Even if it's just to tell me what a horrible person I am for writing such despair. ;)_**

**_Love y'all! - meggz0rz_**


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